IAPE Evidence Blog

The Repos­i­tory, CantonRep.com, cantonrep.com
BYLINE: Lori Mon­sewicz CantonRep.com staff writer
Link to Article

Can­ton, OH

CANTON — Sev­eral pounds of cocaine from a 2007 crim­i­nal case are miss­ing from the Can­ton Police Department’s Prop­erty Room, prompt­ing an inter­nal investigation.

Chief Dean McKimm said Wednes­day he asked the FBI to assist and that some police depart­ment employ­ees may be given a poly­graph test.

John Dysart, super­vi­sory senior res­i­dent agent in charge of the Can­ton FBI office, con­firmed McKimm’s request.

“He asked if we could help with a few things so they could sort it out,” Dysart said. “He asked if we could lend a hand.”

The miss­ing cocaine is already spoiled.

McKimm said offi­cers hop­ing to use some of it months ago for K-9 train­ing found it “ran­cid” and not useable.

Then again, McKimm said, the cocaine just may have been dis­carded with the trash.

“I don’t have any evi­dence that any­thing ille­gal was done,” he said. “One pos­si­bil­ity is that it just got straight thrown away with some other trash gen­er­ated by the destruc­tion process.”

Offi­cers dis­cov­ered about a week ago that the box con­tain­ing pos­si­bly four or five kilos — about 9 to 11 pounds  — was miss­ing. McKimm could not imme­di­ately recall the case linked to the cocaine.

The offi­cers had been prepar­ing for a “prop­erty destruc­tion” dur­ing which police receiv­ing a court release are per­mit­ted to destroy old evi­dence no longer needed in crim­i­nal cases. How it’s destroyed depends on the type of evi­dence, McKimm said.

“Cocaine and drugs are usu­ally burned, guns are melted, paper is shred­ded and then dis­carded,” he said.

Usu­ally, the effort involves the use of an incin­er­a­tor at a local factory.

The evi­dence in the prop­erty room is inven­to­ried and moved to a loca­tion where it can be pre­pared for destruc­tion, the chief said.

Typ­i­cally, some items are con­sol­i­dated into boxes while the boxes they had been in become trash and are discarded.

“What I believe is the prop­erty was mis­han­dled and pos­si­bly thrown away with some of the trash that was dis­carded dur­ing the prepa­ra­tion for the destruc­tion,” McKimm said.

“But we have to cover all the bases, and we’re cer­tainly going to inves­ti­gate so that we can elim­i­nate any pos­si­bil­ity of any crim­i­nal activ­ity by any officer.”

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org

NewsChannel5, newsnet5.com
BYLINE
By: Sarah Budu­son, newsnet5.com
By: Mike Water­house, newsnet5.com
Link to Arti­cle
One Video

Euclid, OH

Pho­tog­ra­pher: WEWS

EUCLID, Ohio — The city of Euclid’s police chief has turned in his res­ig­na­tion, the city’s Mayor Bill Cer­venik con­firmed to NewsChannel5.

Cer­venik said he and Repicky have been dis­cussing Repicky’s res­ig­na­tion for about five weeks.

Cer­venik said sev­eral fac­tors con­tributed what he called a “mutual deci­sion” for Repicky to leave his post.

Among those fac­tors, a no con­fi­dence vote by Euclid offi­cers con­cern­ing Repicky’s lead­er­ship and the April sui­cide of Sgt. Kevin Blakeley.

Blake­ley, a 28-year vet­eran of the Euclid Police Depart­ment, shot and killed him­self inside the police depart­ment moments after Repicky told him he was being inves­ti­gated for miss­ing money from the police evi­dence room.

Repicky will con­tinue work­ing with the depart­ment until Decem­ber 31, 2011 on spe­cial assign­ments, said Cervenik.

Cap­tain Tom Brick­man will serve as the act­ing chief and over­see the department’s day-to-day oper­a­tions, accord­ing to Cervenik.

NewsChannel5 has left mes­sages for Repicky, but he has not returned our calls.

[Read a copy of the let­ter that Mayor Cer­venik sent to city council. ]

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org

West Vir­ginia Media, wtrf.com
BYLINE: Dave Elias

Mar­tins Ferry, OH

For­mer Mar­tins Ferry Police Chief Barry Car­pen­ter is indicted on theft of firearms charges. 

ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio — Court doc­u­ments obtained by WTRF reveal that for­mer Mar­tins Ferry Police Chief Barry Car­pen­ter has been indicted on three counts of thefts of firearms.

Spe­cial Pros­e­cu­tor Shawn Her­vey said Car­pen­ter allegedly stole guns from the Mar­tins Ferry Police Depart­ment while he was chief there. The guns allegedly stolen include two pis­tols and one sniper rifle.

The indict­ments stem from a 10 month inves­ti­ga­tion into $9,000 in miss­ing cash and numer­ous stolen guns.

“We can only link Car­pen­ter to three of the miss­ing guns. We believe he sold two of them for his own per­sonal profit and kept a third gun.” Her­vey said.

The Ohio Bureau of Crim­i­nal Inves­ti­ga­tion and Inden­ti­fi­ca­tion is con­tin­u­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion and offi­cials said it’s pos­si­ble fur­ther charges could be forthcoming.

Car­pen­ter is already serv­ing time in prison after he was found guilty for break­ing into the home of the sur­ro­gate mother for actress Sarah Jes­sica Parker.

Car­pen­ter is up for early release on June 10. How­ever sources said it’s likely these lat­est charges against him will pre­vent any early release.

If Car­pen­ter is found guilty on the lat­est charges he could serve a max­i­mum sen­tence of 15 years in prison. 

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org